Questions raised about 'mind-blowing' activities inside shut-down Kennedy Center

Despite warnings from Donald Trump’s administration that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is in such disrepair that it is a danger to enter it, the National Symphony Orchestra is still using it on a regular basis as a practice space, reported the New York Times.

President Donald Trump said this week the facility is "a great danger to anyone who walks inside," the Times reported. Last month, he said a security guard had narrowly avoided "certain death" when a storm brought down a five-foot piece of ceiling plaster. No one was injured. The president has also asserted the center is in a "virtual state of collapse."

Yet on "most weekday mornings," about 100 NSO musicians arrive to rehearse in the center's main concert hall for upcoming performances in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs of Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5, Haydn's Symphony No. 85 ("La Reine") and Stravinsky's Scènes de Ballet. So far, the Times reported, none have encountered collapsing concrete garage decks, falling 2,500-pound roof sections or "electrical explosions," which the center's management says are risks throughout the building.

"We're just happy to work," a violinist told the paper. The musicians interviewed asked not to be named for fear of retaliation against the orchestra, which still has financial ties to the center. One hoped her colleagues would "shut up" and focus on music, not politics.

"The absurdity of this is mind-blowing," a longtime symphony patron complained to the Times.

Kennedy Center spokesman P.J. Elliott said the concert hall is safe for musicians but not for the public. The hall "is not a restricted area to essential staff and N.S.O. musicians," he said in a statement. "Musicians can rehearse in it safely during the closure." He did not explain why, according to the Times.

The center's board voted Sept. 16 to close the main building, with plans for a two-year closure. Critics of Trump's takeover have called the closure an excuse to avoid plummeting ticket sales and fleeing artists, according to the Times.

Lawyers suing over the closure say the rehearsals undercut the administration's case. David Z. Seide, who represents former employees, said they "confirm what we've been saying all along. The building is not a threat to public health and safety."

"This is part of a pattern of the government routinely saying one thing and doing another," said Norm Eisen and Kyle Freeny, lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), an ex officio board member who sued Trump to keep the building open and his name off its front.